Update: KU’s Josh Selby remains doubtful for Missouri game

Kansas freshman Josh Selby goes up for two points against Texas Tech on Tuesday, Feb. 1, 2011 in Lubbock, Texas.

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10:30 a.m. update Monday

Update: On Monday’s Big 12 coaches call, Kansas University coach Bill Self indicated Josh Selby, who missed Saturday’s game at Nebraska because of a stress reaction in his right foot, remained doubtful for Monday's game against Missouri.

“We are erring on the side of caution in this particular case,” Self said. “He felt much better against Nebraska (Saturday). He went through our pre-game routine, but said he could still feel it (hot spot on foot). He did not practice yesterday, so I anticipate him still being able to feel it today.

“If he’s able to feel it, then we are not going to go with him. Our doctors are 100 percent confident he’ll be full speed in just a few days. I just don’t see any reason to risk it,” Self added.

As to more on how it happened ... “He thought he had a sore foot. We are talking about minor stuff going into our Texas Tech game (last Tuesday),” Self said. “I believe he was going for one of the loose balls on the sideline. It became more sore after that, not to the point where we thought he was injured by any stretch. He talked to the trainers. They looked at it, did an X-ray and MRI. Everything came out negative, but there’s a hot spot so to speak which means he could play on it, but if he were to roll it, there could be a chance there could become a line or a stress fracture that could put him out a substantial amount of time, three, four, five weeks.”

Original Story

Kansas University freshman guard Josh Selby, who missed Saturday’s game at Nebraska because of a stress reaction in his right foot, is listed as doubtful for today’s 8 p.m. home game against Missouri, coach Bill Self said Sunday.

“He will not practice today. I think him not practicing today and having been off since basically Tuesday to me is not a great sign for a guy playing against a team like Missouri that gets after you like that,” Self said of the full-court-pressing Tigers.

“Yesterday, he still experienced a little bit of discomfort, tenderness. Maybe it’s better 24 hours later, but I am not believing that it will probably be to the point I’m going to have total confidence putting him out there, so he’s probably doubtful.”

Self reiterated that Selby could have played Saturday.

“If he had to play, he could play right now,” Self said. “He could have played yesterday, but the thing about it is, I’d rather lose him for two games now even if its a 10-to-20-percent chance risk (of further damage in foot) than to lose him for four to five weeks. Our doctors are confident that this thing is calming down. They think he’s so much better in three days than what he was. They think he’ll be even better, just give it a little more time.

“But this will be Josh’s call with the doctors on whether or not he plays tomorrow. If he’s 100 percent pain-free when we do our shootaround tomorrow, then he’ll play. If he’s not, then I’ll sit him. I don’t think that’s anything that any coach wouldn’t do because this game is very, very important for a lot of people and a lot of reasons and certainly for all of us, but on the flip side, I don’t want to risk not having him during the teeth of the season when it’s most important.”

Brothers

KU’s Selby and MU junior Kim English, who both are from Baltimore, are more than good friends.

“Kim is like my big brother. Back home in Baltimore, we would always work out together. We’d go eat together and stuff like that, so he is like a big brother because he is older,” Selby said.

Has he talked to English this week about the game?

“We haven’t. I’m not sure we will,” Selby said.

This marks Selby’s first KU-MU game.

“My teammates said it is bigger than K-State, and K-State was big. I can’t imagine how Missouri is going to be,” Selby said.

“C’mon, let’s go. Let’s play. Play tomorrow,” Morningstar said with a smile, after scoring 19 points in Saturday’s 86-66 victory at Nebraska. “It’ll be exciting. I know the fans are going to be rocking. The place will be packed. I’m excited.”

Botched breaks

KU junior Marcus Morris on the Jayhawks’ failure to convert a lot of 2-on-1 and 3-on-2 fastbreak opportunities lately. Those opportunities could be vital tonight, considering MU presses a lot.

“Normally, the other team doesn’t want to get dunked on, so they take away the bigs, and the guards already have their minds set on getting it to the bigs,” Morris said. “I think we’ll get better at it.”

Rivalry

KU coach Bill Self, who is 15-3 overall vs. Missouri (12-3 at KU and 3-0 at Illinois), commented on the rivalry.

“I don’t know if it’s anything other than history. I’ve only been a part of it going on eight years, and I was part of a great Missouri rivalry when I was at Illinois, also. This one is more intense, and there is more hatred,” Self said.

“I think this stems back from ... I don’t think it’s the players or coaches or anything as much as it is how people have been raised — the area of the country where they have been raised. It comes back to statehood — both places. There is certainly a lot of pride that exists in both states, and this is the game that many people circle that are fans of each respective schools.”

“It is one of those arenas that have been around for a while, and they do a good job of choreography — all the stuff that they do. When you talk about the band, the fans and how they’re in unison, I think it’s a great atmosphere. It’s a good college basketball atmosphere,” Anderson said.

Of KU, he said: “They have, no question about it, two of the better forwards in the country (Morris twins). They’re playing awfully well right now. I got a chance to watch a little bit of it today (KU-NU game), and they shot the ball well. There’s no question about it. It’s a tremendous task. But we’ll have to match up. We want to be unpredictable. So with that being said, I think we’ve got to match the physicality of the games. The Big 12 games are very physical, and I think we’ve got to match that and hopefully we get guys contributing off the bench in a big way.”

Preparation

KU senior Mario Little on preparing for MU’s press in just one day: “We’ve played them a lot. We know their stuff. They know our stuff, so it’s not really that tough. We’re used to their press.”

Reed injury update

Tyrel Reed is playing with a sore left foot. “It’s something in my ankle,” he said of an injury unrelated to last year’s toe injury. “It throbs the whole time. To jump off it, it hurts or make a cut I’m not expecting. I’ll be OK. If you are out there, you play hard.”

This, that

KU leads the all-time series, 169-94, including an 87-33 record in Lawrence and 40-14 in Allen Fieldhouse. ... The Jayhawks have won the last 11 meetings in Allen dating to 2000. ... Overall, KU has won three straight, eight of the last nine and 12 of the last 15 meetings. ... Since the inception of the Big 12, KU holds a 22-9 series advantage against MU — 20-8 in regular-season play and 2-1 in the Big 12 tourney. ... Today’s game will mark the 41st meeting with one or both of the teams ranked.

So, drgnslayr, are you going to rename yourself "tgrslayer" for this game? No need to add on the tenderizer, Misery will be beaten to a pulp by games end. I hear antlers make good spits for roasting tiger meat.

We should win easily, as long as we hold down our turnovers. That's it. We make blueberry turnovers out of the Tiger's bench for dessert.

@up4par. EJ? Why would we want him to see the court at all? I have watched every game this year and I don't see anything positive he brings to the team. He is not an offensive threat at all. Looks timid when he has the ball in his hands. Keep him on the bench please. Him and Withey.

i'll grant you that he has played inconsistently... however, you look kinda foolish when you say he does NOTHING well. obviously coach self thinks he can do something well or he would not be playing him at all. he does not HAVE to play him and, yet, he does. at the beginning of the year he was shooting lights out and people on here were calling for him to get all of brady's minutes. now the roles are reversed as brady is hitting. by the way, were you in the bathroom when he threw the pass off the glass to releford and allen erupted? just curious.

ej just needs to play much more consistently, but to say there is nothing he does at all is a bit ignorant. if you disagree, you are not disagreeing with me, but with his coach that is playing him. that same coach happens to be one of the best in the country...

oldalum... you may be right about that. it may have been the other way around. ej was still a part of it - pass or dunk. i remember the other play you are talking about (when he tried to pass it off the glass), which is why i point out that it is not his lack of ability to do things well - it is that he desperately needs to be consistent. i am not saying that he should eat up tons of minutes. i just thought/think that mariofan11 is being a bit harsh when he asks posters to point out "name SOMETHING he does well"...

He is not an offensive threat AT ALL??? What planet are you from and how many I Love Lucy reruns did you watch? Sorry, but you're so far off base here that it's hard to imagine you know anything AT ALL about basketball. He does things that are over your head, obviously. You don't see anything positive because you don't know what to look for.

I can't remember a year with so many ankle and foot injuries. I hope is over now ... we need this to stop. ( Withey, Marcus, Travis, Tyrel, Josh and EJ ) thats a lot for one team. Thank God most have been minor, but enough ok .. you can stop now.

Agree...but Releford was just starting to play at a high level and now after his injury, he is back getting most of his minutes after the game has been decided.
I hope Josh can quickly return to pre-injury form.

also, the fan vote accounts for only 1/3 of the final tally (coaches/media other 2/3.) So even with Tyrel building a bigger lead with the fans, the larger the lead the better to make up for the coaches/media, who most likely will vote for Jimmer.

"Some Special Video Feeds to Be Shown on the AFH Scoreboard Screen During Fizzou Game"

~Big game poachers hunting and shooting tigers will be shown during all Fizzou free throws.

~ Dick Cheney and Don Rumsfeld, now with advanced Alzheimers, will be shown hunting the Antlers in LNG powered wheel chairs in a secret Ozark hunting preserve funded by the New World Order; this will run during all TV timeouts.

~Video feeds of Dick Vitale predicting KU to finish 5th in the B12 will be intercut with video feeds of Dr. Phil diagnosing Vitale, as schizophrenic; these will play during time outs called by KU.

~Half time interview with renowned cultural anthopologist Dr. Freida Leaky-Deaky, commenting on the genetic similarities between cannibals of Papua, New Guinea and the Antlers of Columbia, MO.

~Half time interview with Attorney Hugh Wolverine representing the cannibals of Papua announcing a lawsuit against Dr. Leaky-Deaky for suggesting any similiarity between the cannibals of Papua and the "degenerate scum scum sucking antlers" of Columbia, MO.

~Sound engineers from old Apple Records will reveal that the Missouri Fight Song played backwards reveals a message left by Norm Stewart explaining why it is statistically impossible for MU ever to reach a Final Four and indicates that Norm, and not John Lennon, was the Walrus.

~An interview with Quin Snyder will reveal Snyder was fired because of his player's serial bestiality with Labradoodles--a hushed scandal that was fictionalized in an episode of the X-Files called "The Cigarette Smoking Man Does Cats and Dogs."

~On time outs called by Fizzou, the Director of the National Security Agency will interrupt the score board feed to announce that anyone claiming to be a fan of MU will be categorized a terrorist and their brains will be filled with crowd control microwaves that make them sing "I'm a Jay, Jay, Jay Jayhawk."

~Brad Pitt will do a public service announcement in which he says he chose Southwest Missouri State over MU, because the students and faculty at MU were just too uncool for the future Mr. Jolie.

The stat I thought was unique. Only 41 times of the 260+ times has one of the teams been ranked. Is that because they didn't rank them for a period of time. Seems like KU would have been ranked alone at least half of the matchups. I could just not understand the stat.

Normally we handle them easily, especially at home. But with MU's uptempo game, I'm worried about Reed's and Selby's (and Releford's) injuries affecting our ability to get up and down the floor as well as defending the three. Love EJ and Mario, but don't trust them to take care of the ball like we need to tonight. The key tonight will be Tyshawn - he needs to have a stellar game.

To me, Josh Selby is a complete bust. He seems to be a waste of a scholarship. The young guy has been out more than he's played. I hope he applies for the NBA Draft so KU can concentrate on bringing in someone that is more of a team player like Morningstar. How an NBA team can see any type of future in Selby is a mystery to me. I do hope the kid heals 100% and is able to "move on" to whatever future lies ahead for him. Rock Chalk Jayhawk